THIRD party intervention gives cocoo.uk standing in court to raise concerns/arguments, that are wider or different to the ones raised by the parties. cocoo’s concerns/arguments will be based on either of these violations:
a. constitutional or treaty
b. HRL
b. wpi: EL
d. AL
e. CL
(a) Can you add value?
to see if cocoo should intervene, we must read the : claim and defence; grounds for appeal and a reply, for example…. The easiest and quickest way to get a copy of these, is to ask the solicitors in the case, explaining your interest.
How relevant is your work and experience to the court’s consideration of the case?..to what extent cocoo can add value for the court over and above the submissions and evidence the parties?…..an application to intervene is allowed only if:
(i) raises one or more issues of public importance; and
(ii) there is a risk that this public interest may not be sufficiently well-addressed by the submissions of the parties alone…cocoo submissions would provide the court with information, evidence or submissions that they would not otherwise obtain. eg:
(a) could cocoo provide evidence from in an expert witness statement?
(b) Does cocoo you have something to say about how any comparative law/caselaw could influence the development of the law in this case? You may wish to consider instructing counsel to make legal submissions on your behalf on any comparative practice that may be relevant to the court’s decision.
(c) Are there international law standards relevant to the case? Does cocoohave experience or expertise on the application of those standards?
(d) Legal expertise? Does your organisation have particular legal expertise which will make your submissions on the interpretation of the law valuable to the court? Does that expertise mean that you can make an important legal argument not likely to be raised by the parties, but that is relevant to the public interest?
(b) Should cocoo intervene?…or just support one of the parties eg via expert witness statements?
How relevant is this case to cocoo’s charitable objectives or immediate strategy?
Is it likely to impact cocoo’s users or beneficiaries? Is the case likely to significantly change an area of law which is important to cocoo’s work? Do other ngos have greater expertise?
(c) is cocoo’s intervention kept under ongoing review? ….. if the circumstances of the case change, value that cocoo could bring may shift. eg. may be the issues are already being addressed fully by the main parties or other interveners. if so, cocoo needs to change its strategy, or withdraw its intervention….ow, costs risk.
(d) does cocoo’s contribution outweigh the costs risk? Is there any risk that your intervention would result in a worse outcome for your beneficiaries, or a risk that cocoo may be associated with an unwelcome change in law, policy or practice? Are you ready to deal with any publicity?
Securing legal advice
When an intervention is pursued in the pi, specialist solicitors/barristers may assist on a pro bono basis….Many firms, like Freshfields, have a pro bono or a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) team
intervention must be in the wpi:
Supreme Court Rules 26. – (1) After permission to appeal is granted, or a notice of appeal filed, any person [eg ngo, public body, private person etc] seeking to make submissions in the public interest, may apply to the Court for permission to intervene in the appeal.
applications to intervene in courts [other than the supreme court=house of lords], must generally be made in the public interest, to be successful.
how to find cases to intervene?
-register of pending judicial review claims in the Administrative Court?
-the Supreme Court publishes on its website a register of upcoming cases[permission of appeal granted , or notice of appeal filed]…BUT is often only published weeks before a case is due to be heard. but, an application to intervene must be made promptly, well before these details are available online…..thus, careful monitoring [of multiple cases] is necessary to ensure that an application for permission to intervene is made quickly enough.
-Applications to intervene [in the echr] are only allowed in the 12 week period after a case is ‘communicated’ to the United Kingdom or any other State respondent. all communicated cases are published on the court’s [echr] website
– online/social media reports….For example wpi cases can be tracked via Google Alerts [ at 9am an email alert arrives]
-contacts with specialist organisations. For example, the Housing Law Practitioners Association and the Immigration Law Practitioners Association are active in monitoring developments in the law; they and their members have been involved in a number of crucial interventions in the public interest.
Where a number of different organisations are interested in intervening in a case, they may want to consider a joint intervention….ow, there will be Multiple, non joint Interveners
it is very likely that the intervention will give more support to one party than the other, and, for that reason, lawyers for such party will be keen to discuss strategy with interveners and co-ordinate legal submissions…Also, is important to ensure that cocoo submissions do not simply duplicate party submissions…thus, Some contact and co-ordination with both parties is essential
intervention timing
cocoo [if not an intervener on the original case] may still make written submissions [in support or against, a party’s permission for appeal, or for jr]…No application is required to make such court submissions, nor is the consent of any main party required (although should be served on the main parties)
…. cocoo can later decide whether to make an application for permission to intervene
applications to intervene tend to be made after permission to apply for judicial review, or to appeal, has been granted, and before the first case management conference…in any case, the application to intervene should be made promptly = when they do not delay the hearing or prejudice the parties.
In higher courts, an application for permission to intervene will normally be made following the grant of permission to appeal…eg In the Supreme Court, applications for permission to intervene in the appeal should be filed at least 6 weeks before the date of hearing of the appeal.
Counsel for the intervener should attend the hearing, making oral submissions (if permission to do so has been granted) or to answer any questions the court may have regarding its written submissions.
In its written or oral submissions to the court, the intervener (or any of the other parties) may request that the national court makes a preliminary reference to the (ecj=CJEU) on a point of EU law.
The Supreme Court :
any person can make applications to intervene in any kind of appeal before the UK Supreme Court, and “in particular” any of the following:
(a) any official body or NGO seeking to make submissions in the public interest;
(b) any person with an interest in proceedings by way of judicial review;
(c) any person who was an intervener in the court below or whose submissions were taken into account in the application to the Supreme Court for leave to appeal.
an organisation that intervened at an earlier stage of proceedings is required to re-apply to the Supreme Court, and must be notified of any application for permission to appeal by the appealing party.
Documents required to make an application to intervene
(a) an application notice;
(b) an annex to the application notice (or a witness statement) setting out the grounds for the application to intervene;
(c) a draft Order granting the intervener permission to intervene in the form requested.
There is no special court form for applications to intervene in the High Court, Court of Appeal, Privy Council or in any tribunal. Therefore, the standard application form should be used.
Witness statements
Where a prospective intervener is not well-known, a witness statement from a senior employee (a legal or policy director/manager, or Chief Executive) can provide a credible source of information to the court…… I, as solicitor, will provide a witness stat. to cocoo
a witness statement can also be used to explain the reasons for any potential delay in making the intervention application (e.g. organisational constraints, late awareness of the matter). Providing a false statement of truth constitutes contempt of court, which is a criminal offence.
Grounds and intervention
The grounds for the intervention (whether in a witness statement or otherwise) should provide details on:
(a) The claim: identify the case in which you wish to intervene and very briefly summarise the status of the proceedings so far.
(b) The issues in the application: this should very briefly summarise the claimant and defendant’s submissions to the extent relevant to identify the issues in the case on which your organisation wishes to intervene.
(c) The intervener: provide a description of your organisation and why it has expertise that may assist the court in relation to the issues on which it wishes to intervene. Relevant expertise may take a variety of forms, such as the intervener’s ability to:
(i) adduce evidence (e.g. empirical studies or grassroots testimony of persons liable to be affected by a particular administrative decision);
(ii) make submissions on the relevant law (e.g. comparative material on equivalent provisions in other jurisdictions); or
(iii) provide the insight of an organisation with particular expertise that is relevant to the case at hand (e.g. an NGO that works with people with disabilities)…If your organisation has successfully intervened on similar issues before, you should provide a brief summary of your history as an intervener.
(d) The reason for the application: describe the public interest issues at stake, their impact upon the public generally and provide an indication of the arguments that the intervention will address. It is not necessary to go into the arguments in depth – that is reserved for the substance of the intervention itself ….For example, the grounds may submit that a particular piece of legislation or case-law should be interpreted more narrowly or more broadly than has been suggested by one of the parties so far, and describe the expertise that the intervener can bring to this interpretative exercise.
(e) Consent of the parties: provide the date on which the parties were informed about the intervener’s proposed intervention and whether consent was granted or not. The relevant correspondence should be appended to the Application Notice and, if consent was not forthcoming, the grounds should include a brief summary of the reasons for the refusal. If you can answer any of the concerns raised, you should do so briefly.
(f) Form of the intervention: detail the form of the proposed intervention, i.e. the evidence (if any) the intervener proposes to adduce and whether the intervener proposes to make oral submissions at the hearing or only make written submissions. It may be appropriate to propose a time limit or page limit for the proposed submissions.
(g) Timing: in some cases, particularly those on an expedited timetable, or where the application to intervene is made shortly before the hearing, it may be appropriate to propose a deadline for the filing of written submissions, and to provide some assurances to the court that the intervention will not materially delay proceedings.
(h) Costs: it may be appropriate to seek a prospective order for costs…. The grounds should describe the order sought and the basis for doing so (e.g. that the intervener is well placed to assist the court on the issues, but has limited resources, and its submissions will be limited to a particular time/page limit).
two poss.ways of submitting the application to intervene:
(a) filing a formal Application Notice at court (and paying the court fee for an application);or
(b) submitting the documents in a coverletter to the court office: The advantage of a coverletter is that it may include a request that the court waive the fee for filing an Application Notice, which, for example, in the High Court is £255 at the date of publication.
However, if refused, creates the risk of potential delay…thus, to mitigate this risk, enclose a cheque for the court fee, expressly permitting the court to cash it, should it refuse to waive the fee…. in urgent cases, is best to proceed by way of application
cocoo will seek a waiver [of the intervention application fee] by illustrating that its intervention is in the public interest and that it has limited funds. If the intervention will not proceed unless the fee is waived, this should be made clear.
Organisations may wish to consider a joint intervention or may wish to explore other options of financial support to cover the fees associated with any application
Also, cocoo’s Funders and donors/crowdjustice, with a particular interest in the public interest issues, may make a grant or a donation to support the intervention…Occasionally, a solicitors firm may be willing to act pro bono
application to intervene in the Supreme Court and Privy Council
The application should be made on Court Form 2 (‘SC002 ’) and should state whether permission is sought for both oral and written interventions or for written intervention only. The current fee for filing an application for permission to intervene in the Supreme Court is £800.83 However, where an application to intervene is filed by a charitable or not-for-profit organisation which seeks to make submissions in the public interest, the Chief Executive of the Supreme Court may, at its discretion, reduce or remit the fee. A request for fee reduction or remission should be made to the Registrar(see below). Charities and not-for-profit organisations may only apply for the remittal of court fees at the Supreme Court level; it is not possible to apply for a remittal in lower courts or tribunals.
under Supreme Court Rule 6.3.10, interveners must file their submissions (the original plus two copies) at the same time as the respondents (i.e., 4 weeks before the proposed date of the hearing) (usually subject to any other agreement).
As a practical point, you should bring a further copy to the Registry and ask them to stamp it as evidence that it has been properly submitted. In addition, a further ten copies of the submissions should be provided to the appellants to enable them to file the core volumes (pursuant to Rule 6.3.11).
In other courts, the main parties to proceedings should follow the guidance contained in CPR 54A 15.1–15.3.
Costs
Different costs rules apply in
(i) the Administrative Court (jr), and Court of Appeal and
(ii) all other UK courts/tribs.
costs could be ordered against an intervener who:
‘In the event that the permission to intervene is granted, Cocoo requests that such permission be granted on the basis that it will neither seek nor be required to pay costs, on the grounds that Cocoo is, for the reasons set out in the application enclosed, uniquely well placed to assist the court on the issues which it seeks permission to address, is able to bring a wider perspective to bear on those issues than any one party to the proceedings and has substantial experience and expertise on the issues before the Court’.
this order will provide that the intervener will neither seek costs from any of the other parties nor be required to pay costs of those other parties
Cocoo requests an undertaking on costs from the other parties, and includes the following in its letter to the parties, seeking consent to the intervention:
‘As a charity and not-for-profit organisation with limited funds, our client is understandably concerned about the possibility of a costs order being made. We note that the Court will not ordinarily award costs in favour of, or against, an intervener. As such, we would also ask for an undertaking that your client will not seek costs against Cocoo as intervener. For its part, Cocoo undertakes that it will not seek costs against any party, and further will bear costs associated with the printing of additional materials required by its intervention, should permission be granted’
cocoo also seeks a prospective order as to costs from the Court of Appeal when it makes its application to intervene, drafting the following in its covering letter to the court:
‘In the event that the permission to intervene is granted, Cocoo requests that such permission be granted on the basis that it will neither seek nor be required to pay costs, on the grounds that Cocoo is, for the reasons set out in the application enclosed, uniquely well placed to assist the court on the issues which it seeks permission to address, is able to bring a wider perspective to bear on those issues than any one party to the proceedings and has substantial experience and expertise on the issues before the Court’.
Finally, Cocoo includes the following in the draft Order enclosed with its application:
(a) the Applicant will bear its own costs of the intervention; and
(b) no order as to costs shall be made in favour of, or against, the Applicant as a third party intervener.
(ii) costs in all other courts:
-the Supreme Court:
the above does not apply to jr proceedings heard by the Supreme Court….here, interveners bear their own costs…additional costs to the parties resulting from an intervention, may be ordered against the intervener.
costs in the High Court or Court of Appeal: are at the discretion of the court
costs in Tribunals:
there are no specific costs rules that apply to interveners…However, the usual position in that tribunal is that the parties, and the intervener, are expected to bear their own costs.
The European Court of Human Rights – echr:
The ECHR and the Rules of Court of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) provide that the President of the Court may grant permission to intervene in the interest of the proper administration of justice.
How to apply?
There is no prescribed form for intervention, no fee for requesting permission and no need to seek the consent of the parties. The only requirements are that the requests must be duly reasoned and made in French or English. The usual approach of NGOs in the UK is to fax a letter requesting permission to the Registry of the Court, setting out the relevant case, the NGO’s interest and a brief outline of the proposed intervention.
The time limit for requesting permission to intervene is 12 weeks from the date when the ECtHR notifies the relevant State defendant that the case has been accepted, that is, the case is “communicated”.
Where a case has been referred or relinquished to the Grand Chamber, interveners have 12 weeks from that later decision. Late applications are not normally considered.
Assuming that a reasoned application is made within the time limit, permission to intervene by way of written submissions is almost always granted, subject to the standard conditions that the submissions will not exceed ten pages and that the
intervener will not seek to address either the facts or the merits of the case. However, poorly reasoned requests will be refused.
The ECtHR has a very limited power to award costs; it may only award costs if this is necessary to “afford just satisfaction” to a successful applicant. There is no specific provision to make costs awards against interveners or unsuccessful applicants….THUS, Interveners should expect to meet their own costs and to have no order made against them.
The Court of Justice of the European Union: [ECJ = cjeu]
The right of third parties to intervene in cases before the CJEU is very limited, because there only are two poss.types of action:
(a) Preliminary references: are requests to the CJEU from domestic courts for authoritative interpretation of points of EU law.
Any party can apply for a preliminary reference. An intervener in domestic proceedings may suggest that the court make a preliminary reference on an issue…..Interveners may only participate in the preliminary reference proceedings if they have been granted permission to intervene in the domestic proceedings, prior to the reference being made..However, even if a party is granted permission to intervene in domestic proceedings, this does not necessarily guarantee standing to intervene before the CJEU.
Preliminary reference proceedings before the CJEU are free of charge and the CJEU does not rule on the costs, which is a matter left to the referring national court.
A notice of the questions referred for preliminary ruling is published in the Official Journal of the EU (available online).
The judge-rapporteur draws up an internal preliminary report, setting out the questions to be answered and the main points raised by the parties and interveners.
Deadline for written observations (two months and ten days after notification).
Parties and interveners inform the Registrar in writing of any errors or omissions in the Report for Hearing at the earliest opportunity in advance of the hearing…A judge-rapporteur (who is charged with managing the case) and Advocate General are allocated.
submissions can be filed with the CJEU using the e-curia website, and do not need to be served on the other parties.. There is no set time limit for this process, and it can take several months.
There is no right to submit further written observations in reply to written observations submitted by other parties. Therefore, when drafting written observations, is best to pre-emptively address arguments that it is expected the other parties may run
(b) Direct actions: are disputes between institutions or individuals for breaches of EU law and include: (i) proceedings for failure to fulfil an obligation under the treaties; (ii) proceedings for the annulment of EU law; (iii) proceedings for failure to act; and (iv) proceedings to establish liability and award damages in civil suits brought against the EU
interventions are only possible where the intervener can establish an interest in the result of a case, eg where it is directly affected
Interveners making oral submissions are well advised to attend throughout the hearing…interveners should pursue the opportunity to make oral submissions, because written submissions are “frozen in time” … also, if the court has questions about the intervener’s case, and they are not represented by counsel on the day of a hearing, the ability of the intervener to assist the court may be significantly undermined….counsel for the intervener is not required
types of intervention :
submissions on the law; on comparative or international experience; and/or the production of written or expert evidence on the issues before the court.
thus, ask yourself, when drafting your intervention:
(a) Are you making submissions on the law or the facts?
(b) Do you want the court to be aware of matters within the expertise of your organisation?
(c) Will you need to submit a witness statement in support of the assertions made in your intervention?
(d) Are you making submissions on comparative experiences of other courts?
(e) Will certified translations of foreign judgments or other materials be necessary?
(f) Is the material which you would like to put before the court proportionate to the value which it will add to the court’s consideration of the case?
The intervention should include an introduction which covers the following (some of which will be pasted from the intervention application):
(a) The intervener: provide a brief description of your organisation (in order to save space for your substantive arguments, this can simply be a synthesised version of the description of your organisation included in your application). You will already have shown in your application what value you are able to add to the proceedings, so there is no need to provide any further information in respect of your specialist knowledge or expertise relevant to the issues raised, but it is worth re-iterating in your introduction the fact that you have been granted permission to intervene, and that the submissions should (if relevant) be read together with your application to intervene (and any supporting witness evidence provided with that application);
(b) The scope of the intervention: briefly reiterate the public interest issues raised by the case, their impact upon the public generally or sectors of it, and the arguments you wish to address;
(c) The relevant law applicable to the intervention: re-state with clarity what area of law your intervention will grapple with, including any relevant statutory underpinning which might be involved;
(d) The order sought to accommodate the intervention: again, this information is likely to have been given in your intervention application, but it is worth re-stating concisely what outcome you wish to see from the intervention, and invite the court to proceed accordingly. This will enable the court and the parties to understand where the intervention fits into the proceedings
(e) Cross-referencing: it is helpful to the court if you are able to provide cross- references to other information in the court’s core bundle (such as the claim form, defence, court documents and, if possible, the skeleton arguments), as this does assist the judge(s) with their reading.
(0) what is the factual context for the intervention (i.e., why you are making the intervention):
(a) Why is this particular case important?
(b) What in your (the intervener’s) experience enables you to add value to this case?
(c) Are there any pertinent studies or statistics which might help you describe this background?
(d) what is the relevant law?;
(e) what does that law mean?;
(f) how does it apply to this case?
References to authorities must be clear and proportionate. eg If the parties introduce 10 or 15 authorities, the court may readily question whether an intervener should be permitted to introduce more
if cocoo submits evidence by way of a witness statement…. you should consider:
(a) whether that person has the expertise and authority to make the points you wish to convey to the court;
(b) who might need to be involved in preparing the statement alongside your legal team;
(c) the time it might take to produce the statement. So as to properly inform your legal submissions, a witness statement should be produced as early as possible in your intervention timeline
(d) on a practical note, whether the person giving the statement is going to be available to sign it. These practical issues should be handled with care and in good time, particularly where multiple organisations are working together on a joint intervention (see above).
cocoo’s witness statement evidence should be simply to buttress the points made in your submissions by grounding them in some factual context
at the outset, cocoo should inform the other parties and the court of your intentions, setting out briefly what the statement will cover and why it is necessary….this can avert costs risks to cocoo
You may also wish to rely on material from other jurisdictions in order to conduct a comparative analysis. This could be introduced, for example, by way of an annex to your written submissions….See http://justice.org.uk/our-work/third-party-interventions
Your submissions should conclude with a brief statement of what you actually want the court to do ….. in Cases with an EU law dimension, the conclusion also provides the opportunity to suggest to the court that it should exercise its discretion to refer the case to the CJEU pursuant to Article 267 TFEU
Court Bundle: [ideally e-bundles]
The appellant will circulate an index of all authorities and materials proposed to be included in the bundle. At this stage you will have an opportunity to add any materials or authorities you seek to rely on in your intervention which have not already been included.
In situations where permission to intervene is sought (or granted) late in the proceedings, and where the main bundle has already been agreed between the parties, for cocoo seek to include any materials, would cause disruption…thus, here, the intervener can simply produce a separate, standalone ‘Supplementary Bundle’ of materials and file this at court.
Supplementary submissions:
if legislative or case-law developments mean that your submissions have become slightly outdated, or could be improved by reference to a recent judgment, write to the court to request its permission to update your submissions by way of ‘supplementary submissions/ observations’
ANNEXES
Index of Precedents for an application to intervene
Description of Document
Letter to other parties in support of application to intervene
Cover letter to the Court of Appeal
Application Notice for Court of Appeal (Civil Division) (Form N244)165
Draft Order for an application to intervene
Real-life examples of written submissions and other useful materials taken from cases in which JUSTICE has intervened are available on the JUSTICE website, at http://justice.org.uk/our-work/third- party-interventions
(A) LETTER TO OTHER PARTIES IN SUPPORT OF APPLICATION TO INTERVENE
Fred Lister Richards and Sons LLP 21 Sherwood Lane
London SW3 7GT
FAO Janet Jason
Greenton Shopping Mall Greenton
GR6 9EL
By Email and Post
11 February 2016
Dear Sirs
R (on the application of Jason) v Greenton City Council
We write to inform you that our client, Green Action, intends to seek leave to make a third party intervention in the above case before the Court of Appeal. We are currently finalising our client’s application for leave to intervene and shall forward a copy to you in due course.
Green Action’s expertise as an intervener
Green Action is a registered charity and law reform organisation. It works to promote the protection of the environment through research and education, analysis and commentary, and interventions in the courts. Green Action has extensive experience in intervening in domestic and international cases involving important environmental matters. Recent interventions included the cases of R (on the application of Jones) v Leicester City Council and R (on the application of Henderson) v Brighton & Hove City Council. Thus, Green Action is well placed to assist the Court of Appeal in the consideration of, and has a direct interest in, the important issues in this case.
Nature of Green Action’s proposed submissions
Green Action wishes to participate in these proceedings as a third party intervener in order to assist the Court with information about:
(i) statistics on the environmental and public health advantages of pedestrianisation and
(ii) the legal arguments based on emerging international jurisprudence on the protection of the environment as a human right. Green Action intends to complement, and not replicate, the submissions of the main parties to these proceedings. Green Action will not present arguments on behalf of either of the parties to the appeal and will remain strictly within the bounds of the permission granted by the Court.
Green Action will seek permission to present written submissions to the Court to assist the Court’s determination of the case. Please also note that Green Action seeks permission to make oral submissions (of limited duration) in addition to written argument. We should be grateful if you could inform us of whether your client would be prepared to consent to an intervention by Green Action in these proceedings by 19 February 2016. In the event that your client is not prepared to give consent please could you provide a brief explanation of the reasons for refusal.
Costs
If permission is granted, Green Action will bear its own costs and has retained counsel and this firm to act pro bono to assist in the preparation of its proposed intervention.
As a charity and not-for-profit organisation with limited funds, our client is understandably concerned about the possibility of a costs order being made. We note that the Court will not ordinarily award costs in favour of, or against, an intervener. As such, we would also ask for an undertaking that your client will not seek costs against Green Action as intervener. For its part, Green Action undertakes that it will not seek costs against any party, and further will bear costs associated with the printing of additional materials required by its intervention, should permission be granted.
We would appreciate your urgent consideration of this letter, and a prompt response in writing. Yours sincerely
Richards and Sons LLP
(B.1) COVER LETTER TO THE COURT OF APPEAL
Fred Lister Richards and Sons LLP 21 Sherwood Lane
London SW3 7GT
Civil Appeals Office Room E307
Royal Courts of Justice The Strand
London WC2A 2LL
By Email and Post
22 February 2016
Dear Sirs
R (on the application of Jason) v Greenton City Council
We act for Green Action on a pro bono basis in connection with its proposed intervention in the above referenced proceedings. Please find enclosed the application for permission to intervene of our client, Green Action, in respect of the above proceedings, by way of oral and written submissions.
The application consists of the requisite form supported by a witness statement of Graham Young, Director of Green Action, a draft order prepared to assist the Court and the requisite fee.
The present application is made with the consent of the Appellant in this case. The Respondent has not consented to this application on the grounds that Green Action’s intervention will unnecessarily broaden the remit of the case, causing the other parties to incur unnecessary costs. Green Action contests this, on the basis that (i) for the reasons set out in the witness statement of Graham Young, including its expertise in matters relevant to these proceedings and its extensive experience in intervening in domestic and international cases involving important environmental matters, Green Action is uniquely well-placed to assist the court; (ii) Green Action’s submissions will complement, and not replicate, the submissions of the main parties to these proceedings; and (iii) Green Action seeks permission to intervene only by way of written submissions and limited oral submissions, minimising any potential costs burden on the other parties.
Relevant correspondence with the parties to these proceedings regarding the issue of consent to our client’s proposed intervention is duly enclosed with the application. The present application and supporting evidence will be served on the legal representatives of the Appellant and of the Respondent.
In the event that the permission to intervene is granted, Green Action requests that such permission be granted on the basis that it will neither seek nor be required to pay costs, on the grounds that Green Action is, for the reasons set out in the application enclosed, uniquely well placed to assist the Court on the issues which it seeks permission to address, is able to bring a wider perspective to bear on those issues than any one party to the proceedings and has substantial experience and expertise on the issues before the Court.
Please note that Green Action is a registered charity with limited funds, seeking to make submissions in the public interest. Its counsel and solicitors are all acting pro bono. We hereby request remission of the required application fee in this matter.
I should be grateful if you would contact me directly at fred.lister@richardsandsons.com in the event that the enclosed form does not comply with the requisite formalities.
Yours faithfully
Richards and Sons LLP
- What order are you asking the court to make and why?
For the reasons identified in the enclosed Witness Statement of Graham Young, Director of Green Action, an order that:
(1) the Applicant is granted permission to intervene in these proceedings by way of written and oral submissions;
(2) the Applicant will bear its own costs of the intervention; and
(3) no order as to costs shall be made in favour of, or against, the Applicant as a third party intervener.
These appeals are presently set down for hearing on 14 March 2016, and as such the Applicant respectfully requests prompt consideration of this Application.
Please give the service address, (other than details of the claimant or defendant) of any party named in question 9.
Statement of Truth
The Statement of Truth will need to be filled in only where evidence submitted in support of the application is contained in this application notice. It should be signed by the person giving the evidence; this will usually be the applicant or an authorized representative of the applicant.
If a solicitor is instructed to sign the statement of truth on behalf of the applicant, this section should read “The applicant believes” and be signed by the solicitor making the application in his or her own name and the area below the signature space crossed out to read “Applicant’s solicitor”. The position held by the signatory (partner, associate) should be inserted in the space indicated for this purpose.
(I believe) (The applicant believes) that the facts stated in this section (and any continuation sheets) are true.
Signed Dated
Applicant(‘s legal representative)(‘s litigation friend) Full name
Name of applicant’s legal representative’s firm
Position or office held
(if signing on behalf of firm or company)
- Signature and address details
Signed Fred Lister Dated 22 February 2016 Applicant’s legal representative
Position or office held Partner
(if signing on behalf of firm or company)
(B.3) DRAFT ORDER FOR AN APPLICATION TO INTERVENE
CASE NO: 2016/8934/B
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL (CIVIL DIVISION)
ON APPEAL FROM THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE, QUEEN’S BENCH DIVISION, ADMINISTRATIVE COURT : CO/1547/2015 BETWEEN:
[DRAFT] ORDER
UPON AN APPLICATION made by Application Notice dated 22 February 2016 for permission to intervene in these proceedings
AND UPON READING the witness statement of Graham Young, Director of Green Action, dated 22 February 2016.
iT IS ORDERED that:
(1) the Applicant is granted permission to intervene by way of written and oral submissions;
(2) the Applicant will bear its own costs of the intervention; and
(3) no order as to costs shall be made in favour of, or against, the Applicant as a third party intervener.